By Joann Villanueva/Philippine News Agency
MANILA — Philippine shares bounced back on Tuesday but the peso lost steam because of the less-than-stellar growth of remittances by Filipino workers overseas in February this year.
After a three-day slide, the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained 0.49 percent, or 38.48 points, to 7,826.46 points.
BPI Research, in a report after the day’s trading, attributed the rebound to the long-delayed enactment of the PHP3.7-trillion national budget for this year, which was signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday.
The main gauge’s rise was followed by All Shares, which rose 0.23 percent, or 10.99 points, to 4,828.14 points.
It was a mix among the sectors, with Mining and Oil, Property, and Holding Firms rising by 2.59 percent, 1.52 percent, and 0.66 percent, respectively.
On the other hand, Financials ended the day down by 0.57 percent, Industrial by 0.24 percent, and Services, 0.10 percent.
Volume reached 1.45 billion shares amounting to PHP7.1 billon.
Losers led gainers at 107 to 85 while 42 shares were unchanged.
On the other hand, the peso weakened and ended the day at 51.765 from the previous day’s 51.64, which BPI Research said, is in line with the regional trend.
Another factor in the peso’s depreciation was Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) report showing lower year-on-year growth of money sent home by Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in the second month this year.
BSP data showed that cash remittances last February grew by 1.5 percent to PHP2.3 billion from a 4.4 percent growth in the previous month. To date, cash remittances grew by 3 percent, lower than the 7.1 percent growth same period last year.
Personal remittances, which include the value of non-cash items, rose 1.2 percent to PHP2.6 billion, lower than the 3.4 percent last January. As of end-February, personal remittances grew by 2.3 percent, lower than year-ago’s 8.1 percent.
After a good start at 51.7 from the previous session’s 51.76 opening, the peso traded between 51.77 and 51.67, resulting in an average of 51.72.
Volume reached USD810.45 million, higher than the USD581 million a day ago.
The currency pair is seen to trade between 51.65 and 51.85 Wednesday.
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